Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, August 01, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's bears had plenty to feed on this morning with that jump in unemployment, a huge loss by General Motors, which we'll detail later and a rise in oil prices. An hour into trading, the Dow posted an 81-point loss and the NASDAQ fell 31 points. The market stabilized over the mid-day hours as oil pulled back a bit, but those bleak auto sales figures for July kept stocks on the defensive, as did investor caution ahead of the weekend, all of which resulted in a lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 51.70 at 11,326.32. This week, it rose twice, fell three times, had a net loss of 44.37 points. The NASDAQ Composite was down 14.59 ending at 2,310.96 today. It also rose twice and fell three times this week, but gained .43 of a point overall. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 7.07 to 1,260.31 today and for the week overall, it gained 2.55 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 4/32 to 99 15/32, putting the yield at 3.94 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 22.3 million shares, Kraft Foods (KFT) edging up $0.22. The heavy activity in the stock is related to the Post cereal split off into Ralcorp (ph) Holdings today.
Then Citigroup (C) up $0.18 a share.
Elan Plc (ELN) plummeting $10.12, 50 1/2 percent of its value gone. The company and its partner Biogen, whose stock tumbled 28 percent, revealed two new brain disease cases in patients taking their multiple sclerosis drug called Tasabre (ph). Wednesday you might recall, Elan's stock tumbled $14 a share after mid-stage trials of its Alzheimer's drug were inconclusive, a rough weak for the shareholders there.
Wachovia (WB) up $1.71, nice move on that stock.
Bank of America (BAC) edged up $0.43 a share.
Ambac Financial (ABX), big percentage gain with that $1.27 advance. The company settled one of its largest CEO exposures with Citigroup. That gave MBIA stock a boost too, up $1.74.
Washington Mutual (WM) dropped a penny.
$0.37 loss in AT&T (T).
Ford Motor Co (F) on those 15 percent drop in July sales, off $0.15.
And Wells Fargo (WFC) moved up $0.23 a share.
Chevron (CVX) a $0.25 loss. Second quarter earnings were up 11 percent to $2.60 versus $2.52 last year, but that was $0.42 below the Wall Street estimate. The company said it lost $734 million in its refining operations.
NYSE Euronext (NYX) down $6.09. Second quarter earnings, $0.75, up from $0.64 last year but that was $0.03 below the Wall Street estimate, no room for disappointment in this market.
Nortel Networks (NT) down $1.12. Second quarter loss of $0.23, more than triple the $0.07 loss last year and that's despite a 2 percent rise in revenues.
Massey Energy (MEE) up $1.12, big earnings, second quarter, $1.15 versus last year's $0.43. Revenues jumped 34 percent.
Then PPL Corp (PPL), the old Pennsylvania Power and Light, down $2.91. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.50, a nickel below the Street estimate and down from $0.63 last year. Revenues were flat. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance by a dime to $2.35 at best.
Cabelas (CAB), this is the sporting catalogue company, down $1.42. Second quarter earnings dropped to $0.11 from $0.17 last year. Same store sales off a little over 1 1/2 percent.
Oshkosh (OSK) down $2.04. Third quarter earnings, $1.19, down from $1.21 last year. The company cut its 2008 guidance.
And Scotts Miracle-Grow (SMG), this is the fertilizer company, up $5.68. Second quarter earnings, $2, up from $1.98 last year, but $0.10 above the Wall Street consensus, big move in the stock.
Universal American (UAM) up $2.07. The managed health care company had second quarter earnings of $0.30, $0.11 above the Street estimate.
And then Boyd Gaming (BYD) up $2.03. Second quarter earnings $0.25, a penny less than last year. Revenues dropped about 10 percent. The company is suspending its $0.15 quarterly dividend and also delaying the construction of its Echelon project on the strip in Las Vegas.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $2.29.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.28.
And there you see Biogen Idec (BIIB) down $19.75, along with Elan as I explained earlier.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.67.
Google (GOOG) fell $5.89 a share.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.13 gain, bucking the trend.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) no change there.
Intel (INTC) $0.16 rise.
First Solar (FSLR) down $4.29.
And Priceline.com (PCLN) up $1.71. Index fund buying, that stock replaced Kemmet (ph) in the Standard & Poor's mid-cap 400 after the close today.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
